1 August 2015

Belief

I don’t believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or that there are fairies living at the bottom of the garden. I don’t believe that Elvis is still alive. I don’t believe in war or violence or cruelty either. Conflict is inevitable but I do not believe that there is any rationale or justification to apply malevolence in the pursuit of one’s beliefs.

I don’t believe in or get that shit at all.

I believe in most other things though and I believe in possibilities.

I also believe in me.

I didn’t once but I do now.

I still have occasional doubts, of course I do - but the presumptions and suppositions of other people don’t concern me that much anymore.

I believe that everyone is entitled to his or her own belief systems - and I believe that ideologies are subjective things. I understand that some people need faith and they hold on to it out of fear of the unknown or to perhaps rationalize their own existence - but to ritualize devotion to an unseen deity?

I don’t believe in that.

I believe in ethics and integrity and honesty but I know that social fibs are at times acceptable too. I would like to say I never lie but that would be a lie.The purest of honesty can be brutal and I don’t believe in causing pain or harm or hurt.

I have done it before though – both intentionally and unintentionally - because I am human and flawed and I am ingnorant.

I have learned from it though.

That's the most important thing.

I believe in miracles. I see them every day and I mostly take them for granted.

We all do.

There is the miracle of flight and the miracle of sight and the miracle of life.

The miracle of life is the one where I think religion was born and the blindness in faith arose.

By nature we need to understand who we are and why we are and where we came from.

I believe that we are often very fearful of where we are going too.

It is something that every person ponders at some point in time.

I don’t believe that violent conflicts should be engaged on the basis of religious beliefs – or for any other reason for that matter.

I don’t believe in vehemence at all.

Murderous and coercive invasions and intrusions and hostility are just madness.

They are insanity.

Aren’t they?

I believe in skepticism.

I have read both testaments of the Bible and the Qur’an and I have read large hunks of both the Hindi Shruti and the Smriti as well. I have read them as works of literature rather than trying to seek any answers.

None are in there anyway.

I believe that knowledge is not the same as wisdom.

Of all these works it is the Bible that is full of the most contradictions. I assumed that most people knew that it is a very broad collection of documents written by many people – most of them unknown – but there are enormous amounts of people who believe that it was scribed by a deity.

I kid you not.

The same book contains the command, “Thou shalt not Kill” but also declares “An eye for an eye”

What the fuck?

No wonder so many Christians and Jews are so angry and confused.

Nowhere in the Qur’an is there any assertion for people of the Islamic faith to commit acts of atrocity and some of the gentlest and kindest people I know are Muslim. The teachings in the Qur’an emphasise passivism and empathy towards other people. Compassion and consideration and solicitude are the cornerstones of this faith.

I believe in them.

The Hindi scriptures - the Shruti and the Smriti - are really interesting reading and are quite beautifully written. The Shruti is ‘what is revealed’ and the Smriti is ‘what is learned’.

Nice huh?

I think so.

The sutras of the man named Buddha are the beliefs that I personally like the most. I haven’t read them all but when I do pick up some they generally make me smile.

They don’t preach or threaten or endeavour to impose a code of conduct or a set of behaviours on mankind – they are just the words of a very simple man who was on a journey to try and discover himself.

He named his search a journey of enlightenment and I believe in that.

He discovered that we are all of us imperfect creatures and that the meaning of life is that there is no meaning.

My enlightenment is that I believe in goodness and tolerance and generosity. I believe in hope and charity and affection and tenderness. I believe in agony and ecstasy and I believe in love.

When it's all said and done I think that’s all that really matters.The belief in love.I believe that anything is possible.I believe that everything is possible.Believe that or not.